Premedication
using medication before some other therapy to prepare for that therapy
Premedication is using medication before some other therapy (usually surgery or chemotherapy) to prepare for that forthcoming therapy. Typical examples include premedicating with a sedative or analgesic before surgery; using prophylactic (preventive) antibiotics before surgery; and using antiemetics or antihistamines before chemotherapy.
Premedication before chemotherapy for cancer often consists of drug regimens (usually 2 or more drugs, e.g. dexamethasone, diphenhydramine and omeprazole) given to a patient minutes to hours before the chemotherapy to avert side effects or hypersensitivity reactions (i.e. allergic reactions).
Melatonin has been found to be effective as a premedication in both adults and children due to its pharmacological properties of hypnotic, antinociceptive and anticonvulsant which produce effective anxiolysis and sedation. Unlike midazolam, melatonin does not impair psychomotor skills or adversely affect the quality of recovery. It has a faster recovery time compared to midazolam and has a reduced incidence of post-operative excitement and results in a reduction in dose required of propofol and thiopental.
Midazolam is effective in children in reducing anxiety associated with separation from parents and induction of anesthesia. Sufentanil is also sometimes used as a premedication.
“Premedication” enters the record as using medication before some other therapy to prepare for that therapy. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Premedication, using and medication can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1589604. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Premedication” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.